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PURCHASE OF ALASKA 



SPEECH 



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OF 




ON. LEONAED MYERS 

OF PENNSYLVANIA, 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JULY 1, 1868. 



The Committee of the Whole on the state of the 
Union having under consideration the bill making 
an appropriatiou of money to carry into e£fect the 
treaty with Russia of March 30, 1867— 

■ Mr. MYERS "said: 

Mr. Chatuman : We are about to determ- 
ine a question which must have an important 
bearing on our future history. The treaty- 
making power — the President and Senate — 
has, so far as it can, acquired what is known 
as Russian America or Alaska, an empire 
on the American continent, yet undeveloped 
it is true, but immense in its resources and 
extent, and it remains for the House of Rep- 
resentatives to approve or condemn the pur- 
chase. No one doubts that our appropria- 
tion of the purchase-money is needed to per- 
;!jct the agreement. With this the possession 
will be an accomplished fact. Without it, to 
-ay the least, there will be difficulty in the pub- 
ic mind, and if Russia shall withdraw and 
Resume authority over this territory or sell it 
o atiother Power, still greater doubt as to 
ivhich v/ould have been the better course. 

I will not for a moment admit that the action 
of the President and Senate binds us to com- 
plete any purchase of territory whatever. If 
the treaty- making power extended thus far we 
should be required to accept a countiy although 
inhabited by millions of slaves, or thousands 
of miles distant, though its religion were in- 
closed in the Koran or its people dwelt at the 
feet of polygamy and barbarism. If Alaska 
Gould be thus acquired, why not China or 
Japan? To state the proposition that the House 
of Representatives need not be consulted in 
such an eveat is its own best refutation. It is 
unnecessary to trouble the committee with 
precedents. The House of Representatives 
asserted its right in this regard, everf against 
the protest of Washington, as early as 1794 in 
relation to the British treaty, and has in no 
instance that I am aware of surrendered this 
right. Nor is the objection solely that a grant 
of money must be made by law before the 
treaty can be carried to its perfect consumma- 



tion. It is for the people through their Rep- 
resentatives to say whether from locality or 
for any cause an acquisition of territory is 
subversive in their opinion of the interests or 
principles of the Government. 

Whether we choose to concur in and perfect 
this purchase is an entirely different matter. 
For one, I am in favor of so doing, and in com- 
mittee agreed to the report of its distinguished 
chairman, [Mr. Banks,] except as to this 
stronger assertion than his of our own power. 
That the treatv is v/ith a nation which has 
been pur constant friend, sympathizing in our 
struggle for the preservation of the Union is, 
I confess, nst without its due influence ; and 
when it is remembered that a year has passed, 
and months of possession since the treaty, with- 
out protest on the part of this House, that 
adds much to the other considerations in favor 
of the appropriation. 

Mr. Chairman, the acquisition of Alaska has 
encountered in this House an opposition of the 
bitterest description — an open one, however, 
which deserves to be "met with like distinct- 
ness. Its coast is represented as dreary and 
inhospitable beyond belief; its interior as 
scarcely known, or where known uninviting 
and valueless ; the purchase itself utterly 
uncalled for and reprehensible. Ridicule, the 
most powerful of weapons, is launched from 
able tongues to drive away the American flag 
which now floats above it. Finally, the demand 
is that Russia be requested to repossess this 
domain and relieve us from its incumbrance. 

When, after the treaty ofGuadalupe Hidalgo, 
a similar measure was proposed, an able states- 
man who had not favored the Mexican war, 
Mr. Vinton, said : 

" That this country (California and New Mexico) 
would never be surrendered to Mexico might be put 
down as a fixed fact. It was just as certain as that 
Georgia would never be given back to the King of 
England." 

I do not believe Alaska will be given up. _ I 
will notice directly the statements on which 
this opposition is founded. They will be shown 
often infcorrcct, and generally insufEcient to 
overi)alance the benefits of the treaty. But for 






the present I choose to treat the subject in an 
aspect which overshadows all others. The pos- 
session OF Alaska is a question of poweu. 
_ The North American continent for a long 
time was held by England, Spain, and France. 
The former, which, contrary to its early in- 
stincts of aggrandizement and naval science, 
turned away from its shores the '-world-seek- 
ing Genoese," made haste to repair the error, 
and in less than five years afterward the Vene- 
tian Cabots from Labrador to Florida gave her 
the outlines of a new empire. For three cen- 
turies thus, a few European Powers, with 
varying fortunes, acquired and divided North 
America. Then came the war of the Revolu- 
tjjjn and its conquest from Great Britain, and 
very soon the United States began to discuss 
territorial questions and make assertions of 
doctrine in regard to them. Those assertions 
have been constant, until the American doctrine 
is unmistakable. We have kept aloof from the 
desire for foreign territory; we have steadily 
refused to acquire new territory here simply by 
conquest; Mexico was ours by the force of 
arms, and we restored it; but we have just as 
steadily endeavored to remove the interference 
which monarchical institutions in North Amer- 
ica cannot fail to produce. Thus Florida was 
acquired by treaty from Spain, and Texas, its 
nominal exchange, came to us inevitably. Thus 
France bade adieu to our continent in ceding 
Louisiana, nor could the armed legions of the 
third Napoleon prevail over the sentiment of 
North American nationality, which ended'in the 
warning fate of Maximilian. But two Euro- 
pean States now share with us the continent, 
for the Central American governments are "to 
the manner born" and republican. England 
has above us a vast domain from Labrador to 
west of the Rocky mountains, from the Arctic 
ocean to the foot of Canada ; Russia, which, 
thanks to Peter the Great, discovered that Asia 
and America were less than forty miles apart, 
holds ,the Northwestern Pacific slope to the 
Northern sea, and Behring straits, the key to 
the Eastern empire. 

We are offered this northwestern continent 
for $7,200,000 in gold. Much more than this 
sura named has lain idle and without interest in 
the Treasury for years, and will no doubt for 
years yet to come, while such an outlay would 
return it to us with increase. Shall we refuse 
to appropriate the amount? What then? Why, 
I think i hear our opponents say, Russia will 
resume its svray and matters stand as hereto- 
fore. Perhaps so, for a little time, but more 
probably not. The Czar consented to this 
sale at our own request. Our fishing trade with 
these Russian possessions was so valuable that 
the Legislature of Washington Territory, in 
January, 18G6, petitioned our Government to 
obtain from Russia the privilege "to visit the 
ports and harbors of its possessions to the end 
that fuel, water, and provisions may be easily 
obtained, together with the privilege of curing 
fi^^h and repairing vessels " there, staling that 
'■abundance of codfish, halibut, and saln^on, 



of excellent quality, have been found aloi 
the shores of the Russian possessions." Mon 
than this, the charter was about. to expire, in 
June, 1807, by which Russia had ceded its 
rights over the territory to a Russian- Americ: n 
company, which had in turn ceded them to t e 
Hudson's Bay Company. The latter w .3 
endeavoring to get a twenty-five years' renew 1 
of the charter. Butat this appropriate time c ir 
California Senators made an effort to seer -u 
this exclusive privilege for an American fu. 
trading company. Our Pacific coast liad 
already known the value of Alaska, its furs, 
fisheries, and game ; its ice supplied the Cali- 
fornia market and its timber was needed for 
our vessels. Hoio naturally the purchase came 
about. Russia had enough contiguous land 
and had always intrusted the government of 
this to others, while we wanted what to us is 
almost contiguous. 

The learned gentleman from Ohio [Mr. 
Shellabargeii] says " that country is strong 
which is conipact," and intimates that a's 
British Columbia, with a frontage of over five 
degrees on the ocean, intervenes between us 
and Alaska it would conflict with the American 
dottrine to hold the latter. Just the reverse, 
sir. We do icish to be compact. The Ameri- 
can sentiment is that we should have liad 
British Columbia and Vancouver's Island. 
In this we failed. But next to that we' hold 
that by no act of ours shall a foreign State 
have its compactness and strength increased 
on our continent. The gentleman will not tell 
me it is more difficult to sail three hundred' 
miles from our northwestern boundary to Alaska 
than from New York to San Francisco. You 
need not cross British domain in the former 
case nor Mexican in the latter. Reject Alaska 
and there is scarcely a doubt that Russia, hav 
ing once determined to part with it, would sci. 
to England, and still less doubt that Englar.!^ 
to-morrow would seize the chance of taking i 
off our hands. 

Mr. Chairman, I wonder xohat the America)' 
people wo7dd say to such a result ! If such must 
come I will not be responsible for it. The British 
empire, covering us on the north from ocean to 
ocean, even to the North Pole, would develop a 
formidable rival on the Pacific to that commerce 
and trade' which now can be ours alone. The 
British North American possessions, now 
almost land-locked on the west, hold out little 
promise to their settlers and Anglo-Saxon en- 
terprise finds no incentive to exertion. Give 
it this new outlet and you build up a permanent, 
because prosperous, rival, which holding half 
the continent can never be dislodged. Tha 
people of the United States are in no haste, 
but they look forward surely to the day when 
the starry flag, which they have followed alike 
in storm and in sunshine, shall cover ti.e con- 
tinent. That day will come in its own good 
time. Let us not retard it as we did in settling 
the Oregon boundary. JS^'o consolidation of 
foreign empire must be allowed between tlicse 
seas. The possessions of Russia here would 



have continued an equipoise to England. _ She 
has now determined to confine her dominion 
beyond the Pacific. England never volunta- 
rily contracted her possessions. Rest assured 
Alaska, if not ours, will be transferred to 
Grjeat Britain. The nation which struggled_ so 
hard for Vancouver and her present Pacific 
boundary, a-jid which still insists on having the 
little island of San Juan, will never let such 
an opportunity slip. Canada, as matters now 
stand, might become ours some day, could her 
people learn to be American ; but never in 
such an event. 

Ah, says my colleague on the Foreign 
Affairs Committee, from Wisconsin, [General 
Washburx,] "the place is worthless." He 
does not wish it at any price. The climate is 
frightful, the furs few, and the mineral deposits 
are not proved to his satisfaction. AVell, my 
friend is not original — and he knows I do not 
use the word offensively — in the role of a 
croaker. We had them every time new terri- 
tory was added to our domain ; the files of the 
Congressional Globe are very ugly reminders 
of the fact. When we acquired Louisiana by 
the treaty of Paris, a croaker of that day called 
it "a dreary and barren wilderness." Yet this 
fertile province was divided into rich States of 
the Union, and its noble stream which, with the 
tributaries, forms an outlet for the productions 
of the mighty West, has a value world-wide, 
•for the possession of which the armies of free- 
dom and slavery reddened its very water, now 
forever dedicated to liberty. 

California was called an ill-starred.purchase 
and bad bargain ; yet this same California, 
laden with wealth, its cereals and fruits unsur- 
passed, its vines bidding fair to rival those of 
France and Italy, came to us in less than three 
years a free young State, forming the first 
barrier on the southwest against the extension 
of slavery, which finally led us to its conquest. 
The $2,000,000,000 in gold it has added to the 
wealth of the world sink into insignificance 
beside its geographical advantages and their 
development, of which no doubt ihe pursuit of 
that wealth '.vas the instrument. 

Init, says my friend, Alaska is in a bleak 
and northern region. Perhaj^s there is no com- 
moner error than that latitude is the control- 
ling element of temperature. I do not pretend 
to hG a cliraatologist ; but it is well known that 
the southwest equatorial winds and thermal cur- 
rents of the oceaji exert a controlling influence 
on what are known on land as isothermal lines ; 
and the great hot currents which, lessened in 
intensity, flow against the shores of Britain and 
Norway, are but diff'erent directions of those 
which lave the coast of Alaska. Western 
Europe, like western America, is milder in the 
same latitudes than on the east. If this be"not 
so, I hope my friend will explain why London, 
nearly eleven degrees latitude north- of New 
York, is eight degrees warmer. Let me illus- 
trtite by the eastern hemisphere: Pekin, on the 
western border of Asia, at forty degrees north 
latitude, has winters very nearly as severe as 



at St. Petersburg, in sixty degrees. My doubt- 
ing colleague says facts are worth a thou- 
sand theories. So be it. It is a geographical 
fact that in many cold climates, like Canada, 
severe winters refresh the earth ; and when the 
snow is removed the fertility of the soil is so 
gr. at that vegetation is luxuriant and rapid, 
making their brief summers yield richer abund- 
ance than in more tropical climates. 

If, however, the argument of latitude is to 
prevail, did it ever enter the gentleman's 
mind to wonder what England wanted with the 
barren, bleak, dismal soil of her possessions 
east of Alaska, or why she tried during the 
Crimean war to capture Sitka ! Has he ever 
been to the beautiful city of Quebec — strange 
it should have been built in so inhospitable 
a region — eleven degrees south of Sitka, it 
is true, but twenty degrees colder. What bar- 
barians to be sure ! 

Then go to the fashionable and elegant me- 
tropolis of Russia itselt, one degree fifty-six 
minutes north of the parallel of Sitka, and fif- 
teen degrees colder. Certainly one must die 
there of frost! And then, sir, remember that 
in 1845 the United States were convulsed with 
an insane desire. We were actually going to 
war with England to obtain the strip of ground 
between forty-nine and fifty-four degrees forty 
minutes. Yes. "fifty-four forty or fight" was 
theory; and what for? Simply to adjoin this 
terrible land from which my colleague shrinks 
with a coldness beyond that of the climate he 
depicts — a territory for which.we had under 
VanBuren and Polk twice offered five millions 
and been refused. 

Mr. WILLIAMS, of Pennsylvania. Will 
my colleague furnish the proof and evidence 
of that statement? I would be glad to see the 
evidence of it. • 

Mr. MYERS. The Congressional' Library 
is as open to ray colleague as it is to me, and 
if the information is not there the archives of 
the State Department are as open to him as to 
me. If the gentleman looks to the files of the 
State Department he will find th*e evidence. 

Mr. BANKS. What is the fact that is 
denied? 

Mr. MYERS, The former offers of this 
Government for Alaska. But whether it be so 
or not the gentleman will not deny that this 
nation were about to go to war with Great 
Britain -to obtain the country next to Alaska 
up to 54° 40^ 

Mr. BANKS. If the gentleman from Penn- 
sylvania will allow me, I will say that this 
Government has three times contemplated'the 
purchase of Russian America from the Russian 
Government ; and twice it has made the offer 
of $5,000,000, which has each time been re- 
fused. 

Mr. WILLIAMS, of Pennsylvania. Has the 
chairman of the Committee on Foreign Rela- 
tions [Mr. Banks] furnished to the House and 
the country any evidence to this effect? 

Mr. BANKS. I have not. But I understand 
that to be the fact, and I make the statement' 



on my responsibility. Once during Mr. Polk's 
administration tlie matter was discussed, but 
terminated without auy forma,! offer or refusal. 
The offer, however, was made twice, once in 
Mr. Van Buren's administration, and once in 
]Mr. Buchanan's admmistration. 

Mr. FERlilSS. I suppose the committee 
rely upon the authority furnished by the execu- 
tive department. In Executive Document No. 
177, a document furnishing the evidence iii 
answer to a resolution of the House upon this 
subject, it is stated that Kussia had twice offered 
this territory to the United States. But there 
is not one particle of evidence in that docu- 
ment that I can find that the Government of 
the United States ever applied to the Govern- 
ment of liussia for this territory. 

Mr. MYERS. This is a matter which has 
very little to do willi my argument. If my good 
friend from New York [Mr. Feukiss] will only 
be persuaded by the rest of the evidence that 
is contained in that document I will drop this 
point, for it is of very little importance. 1 only 
referred to what I believed to be a fact. It will 
not do to quote the document for one purpose 
and then throw it aside. Let him take it as 
evidence in regard to the riches of the country, 
its timber, minerals, and fisheries, and I am 
content. 

It is a fact that Britain, Norway, Sweden, 
Siberia, and all the Jlussias produce gold, even 
though my colleague confines that metal to the 
South. It is needless, therefore, to speak of 
other ores, or .remind him that Behring and 
Cook saw copper and iron in Alaska, finding 
them in common use as knives and arrow- 
heads ; or that his favorite voyager, La Perouse, 
reported copper and coal ; and that Meares saw 
malleable lumps of copper sometimes weigh- 
ing a pound. It is as useless, too, to remind 
him that gold is traced all the way on either 
side along the ranges of the Rocky mountains, 
as that Captain Cook, in noticing the mildness 
of the climates, says ''cattle might exist in 
Oonalaska all the year round without housing. ' ' 
And this reminds me of my friend's partiality 
for poetry. Campbell never knew how cruel 
a thing he did for Wisconsin when, taking a 
poet's license, he wrote: 

" The wolfs long howl from Oonalaska's shore." 

Unfortunately for my colleague (Campbell's 
fame is too safe to suffer) there are no wolves 
at Oonalaska. [Laughter.] Captain Cook, 
Meares, and Cox state this most positively. 

Some little ideaof the value of the fur trade 
nuiy be gleaned from the fact that as early as 
1828 to 1833 the Hudson's Bay Company ex- 
ported $1,000,000 worth a year, and the an- 
nual imports thence to England alone, from 
1801 to 1865, averaged a half million skin^, 



not to speak of the fur trade across Behring 
strait to Russia and China. It is strange that 
the falling off in the fur trade which :v col- 
league notices is confined to Alaska, \,bou 
which we know so little and he so much, 
to the inhabitants, there are but seventy uve 
thousand all told, and were they the Larbarians 
he represents, the number is too insigniucant 
to prove a solid objection to the treaty. 

A final v/ord in regard to the alleged inhos- 
pitable coast. The Atlantic coast might liave 
furnished my colleague ample statistics of 
storms. Labrador could have supplied him 
with mist, and Newfoundland with fog; but 
comparisons are odious — I commend him to 
the voyage of the Ossipee last October. Wher 
she took our Ilag to Sitka the air and climate 
were delicious as our own in the same month, 
and all the way from Victoria to Sitka, over 
eight hundred miles, except a very few rpsorts 
to the ocean, she sailed on the placid str.dts 
which, running miles inward parallel '^ith the 
sea at the base of mountains whose sides wi're 
skirted v;ith green pines, continue at slight in- 
tervals for eleven hundred miles. Their depths 
are like unto the sea, of which they are in fact 
a pa?*-, and the vista is represented bo;h then 
and in November, on the return trip, as charm- 
ing. It is not a marvel that our southwestern 
coast asked for this purchase, nor that '-ali- 
fornia should send even to Kodiak, seven hun- 
dred miles above Sitka, for her ice. 

With the fisheries which this acquisition will 
call into being and protect, a hardy trained rac 3 
of seamQn will fit themselves to sail the ships 
which soon must dot the Pacific between hs 
and Asia, exchanging the wonders oi either 
shore, and be ready to man our vessels of war 
should the emergency arise. That trade is now 
beyond a question. Americaaclviliza ionlias 
done what olden Europe failed to accomplish. 
It has unlocked the seclusion of China as it is 
gradually doing with Japan, until its ^j>pula- 
tion leaps the barrier of centuries to throng 
our nearest border, and even to-day China 
chooses America to lead her to the outer world. 
As the Occident thus clasps the Orient and 
helps it shake off the custom of ages, the world 
will become more luminous by the contact, 
even as space is forgotten in the telegrapliic 
sympathy which thrills the old and new in tlie 
same moment. These bonds must be ceuienteJ.. 
Alaska must be ours, with its islands stretching 
one thousand miles outward to greet the East, 
and remembering that we hold our heritage in 
trust for posterity let no man disdiiin to picture 
the day, distant though it may be, when'Ovrr 
the continent of North America, from ocean to 
ocean, from the Arctic to the Antilles, the can- 
opy of freedom shall cover one people, one 
country, and one destiny. 



Printed at tho Congressional Globe Office. 



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